Stakeholders advocate subsidy for hepatitis treatment in Nigeria

Stakeholders said testing and treatment of viral hepatitis in Nigeria should be subsidised or made free under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund or the National Health Insurance Act.

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The stakeholders made the call in Abuja at the project inception meeting and inauguration of the community advisory board on the hepatitis C prevention combination project in Nigeria on Monday.

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver. The condition can be self-limiting or can progress to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.

Hepatitis viruses are the most common cause of hepatitis in the world but other infections, toxic substances (e.g. alcohol, certain drugs), and autoimmune diseases can also cause hepatitis.

Speaking at the meeting, the Deputy Director of the Viral Hepatitis Desk, National AIDS and STDs Control Programme of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Ganiyu Jamiyu said Nigeria has an average prevalence of 8.1 per cent of hepatitis B virus and 1.1 per cent of hepatitis C virus.

He said that though recent market-shaping efforts have yielded significant price reductions of diagnostic and treatment commodities by 50 per cent, more needs to be done as the virus is associated with high out-of-pocket costs.

“There is a need to increase awareness through sustainable mass media and community campaigns, and the need to explore various financing mechanisms for subsidised or free treatment of viral hepatitis such as BHCPF or the NHIA and the need to scale up viral hepatitis screening among key population and hard-to-reach areas in states and strengthening of referral system for viral hepatitis patients.”

He said the Federal Government established the national viral hepatitis control programme in 2013, the National Technical Working Group, and the development of a national policy on VH in 2015 as part of efforts to scale up the response to the disease.

“Injection safety policy including universal precaution exists since 2007 and is implemented in most government facilities. There is also the establishment of the National Blood Service Commission to coordinate, regulate, and ensure the provision of quality blood, blood products, and services in 2021,” he noted.

The National Coordinator of NASCP, Dr Adebobola Bashorun, said about 19 million Nigerians are living with hepatitis B and C.
“Nigeria has a national programme that is looking at every hepatitis infection. So, in that national programme which started about 10 years ago, we have a national guideline that tells us what we should do in terms of prevention, treatments, and immunisations because it is an immunisation-preventable disease, especially hepatitis B.

“So as a country, we have a robust guideline that starts from control in the population.”

The Technical Officer of HIV and hepatitis from the World Health Organisation in Nigeria, Dr Oluwafunke Ilesanmi-Odunlade said that the meeting was to chart ways to prevent hepatitis C among people who inject drugs.

According to her, the advocacies and implementation of programmes target different populations.

“For people who inject drugs, they exchange needles and hepatitis C is common among them. It is a population group that you can contain because you can map them, They are not as large as the general population, that is why we are working with them,” she said.

She, however, decried the high cost of diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

“Most of our health services are being provided out-of-pocket. If we go to the hospital, we pay, even if we have health insurance it is still out-of-pocket. So, it is expensive to get a diagnosis and to have the different tests that you need to do you might need up to N50,000.
“But the country is not resting on its oars as the government is working together with stakeholders to address this particular area,” she added.

The Practice Lead, Society for Family Health, Godpower Omoregie, said that the meeting was aimed at soliciting support from the national and state actors for an enabling environment for protocol development and the overall project implementation.

Omoregie added that it also provides a national platform for initiating active and ongoing engagement between implementing partners, community members, and other stakeholders.